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Monday Mission: Give Eco-Friendly Gifts

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to give gifts to the earth as well as your friends and family this Christmas (or other gift-giving holiday in December).

Since my son was a baby, I’ve started our Christmas lists with “More wood, less plastic. Fewer batteries and buttons, more thinking.”

It doesn’t really work, but I keep trying.

I also usually include “green” gift ideas, the things that I pine for all year, like stainless steel lunchbox dishes, organic pajamas, and real wooden blocks (2 sets of those have been on the list for a year or two, but I keep them there and keep trying!). Many times, eco-friendly/safe/non-toxic items, however you want to label them, are more expensive than the average option.

I’m pretty cheap, so I don’t always budget for them on a regular basis but get by with what I already have. I feel okay about putting them on Christmas lists NOT because I want to take advantage of family members, but because I figure most people probably have a dollar amount that they plan to spend on certain people. I’d rather have fewer, high quality gifts than many inexpensive plastic toys or clothing.

This year as we move into a new house, I will have lost the excuse of “we don’t have any space for more toys!” that always marked my anti-materialistic tendencies. Now I have to just say, “We really don’t NEED very many toys. Maybe just this nice [fill in the blank] that will get played with all the time and last forever…”

I’m also determined to GIVE more eco-friendly gifts this year, my way of taking advantage of a time of year when I spend more money than usual to make sure that I’m conserving resources in some way.

Eco-friendly for the Unsuspecting

The holidays are the perfect time to really live the KS mission, balancing nutrition, the environment, your time and money. Frugal gifts that help others eat well and/or care for the earth are awesome finds.

Not everyone will appreciate fewer gifts and higher quality, but novelties can over well, as can gifts that are eco-friendly without being overtly so. Here are some ideas:

Glass bakeware and storage dishes (I’ve had better luck with the lids on Pyrex, not Anchor, and I LOVE having lids for my 8×8 and 9×13 glass dishes)

Note: The links above take you to Amazon, where I always try to use Swagbucks to purchase Christmas gifts. Have you set your search to a Swag-search so you can earn money while surfing? Also, I wanted to let folks know that when you shop on Amazon this season (or anytime) you can bless your favorite bloggers just by finding ANY link to Amazon and clicking through with it before you shop. That blogger (or charitable organization) will get a few percent of your entire order, even if you don’t order anything they linked to. I choose a different blog colleague each time I make an order.

Microfiber cloths and a primer on how to clean with them – show folks how frugal it is to skip the window cleaners, for example, and they’re kinder to the earth while thinking they’re just being kinder to their own pocketbook. Tee hee!

MadeOn lip balms – I ordered 20 last year because my husband’s extended family does stocking stuffers for everyone, adults and kids alike. I figured these were something everyone could use and way better than a few pieces of candy or mini Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer (ahem). Renee’s new gift options are a super easy way to send a thoughtful gift to someone else. I highly recommend Au Chocolat. Nom. (There’s a $3 off coupon for a family sized Au Chocolat tucked into Smart Sweets!)

Online Cooking Class for Kids

UPDATE 2015: I’m so excited to launch my new eCourse, Kids Cook Real Food, in January 2016. It’s truly going to be fantastic, and we have a printable gift certificate (plus more about the program) HERE for your Christmas tree!

Clutter-free Gifts

Simplicity is a wonderful gift, and buying fewer things means fewer resources used and less trash generated. Consumables are almost always appreciated.

Donation to charitable organization (a few years ago our “stocking stuffers” for the extended family were just notes that we had donated to the American Heart Association in the family’s name, since the patriarch of the family died very young from a heart attack)

A day out, a particularly special gift from a grandparent or aunt/uncle to a child. My friend’s son went to Alaska this summer as his grandfather’s birthday gift to him! (But a children’s museum for the morning plus lunch would be snazzy, too…)

For the Crunchy Ones

Hopefully you all know some folks who actually appreciate natural living and will enjoy getting something that makes their quest to be easy on the earth…well, easier. Here are just a few ideas:

NaturOli sells high quality soap nuts, which are my most economical laundry option, and they also have personal products and cute gift packages this time of year. Shop here.

UPDATE: I’m all about being practical, and I come by it honestly – my mom gave Branch Basics all-purpose soap to my brother and his wife last Christmas. The bottles are even red and green (and blue) so tie on a ribbon and call it Christmas! Our BB bottles clean EVERYthing around here, and with 4 kids and 21 homemade meals a week, “everything” is a big job!

Note: the next three companies are my sponsors this month (Nov. 2011). In gratitude for the ad they buy, I always include a mention within a post, and this one seemed like a great fit. It doesn’t help me at all if you buy from my sponsors, although it makes me feel good if I can bring them some business. I just love browsing their shops and am pleased to be able to share quality companies with you, which are run, more importantly, by some really cool people.

The toys are amazing! It’s so nice to shop somewhere and not worry about the source or materials in the toys… When your child will be sleeping with their favorite friend, you hope it will be a non off-gassing material, unlike my daughter’s favorite plastic babies (former gifts…)

from LPC Survival: Now you probably wouldn’t spring for a Berkey system as a Christmas gift, but the sport bottles are really affordable for someone who would appreciate the opportunity for super high quality filtered water on the go (free shipping).

I’m sure this is only the tip of the iceberg, and we’ll all get many more ideas in the comments than in the post itself (I love days like that!).

What eco-friendly (and budget friendly) gifts do you like to give?

There are a great many affiliate links in this post. It’s pretty awesome that when you shop starting with a blogger’s links, they get commission and it doesn’t cost you anything…See my full disclosure statement here.

Need More Baby Steps?

Here at Kitchen Stewardship, we’ve always been all about the baby steps. But if you’re just starting your real food and natural living journey, sifting through all that we’ve shared here over the years can be totally overwhelming.

That’s why we took the best 10 rookie “Monday Missions” that used to post once a week and made a printable checklist so you can track your progress.

Sign up to get the checklist and weekly challenges and teaching on key topics like meal planning, homemade foods that save the budget (and don’t take too much time), what to cut out of your pantry, and more.

About Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship

Katie Kimball is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network. Over the last 10 years, Katie has spoken prolifically at conferences, online summits and podcasts and become a trusted authority and advocate for children’s health. Busy moms look to this certified educator for honest, in-depth natural product reviews and thorough research. She often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to deliver the most current information to the Kitchen Stewardship community. In 2016 she created the #1 bestselling online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook. A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.

26 Bites of Conversation So Far

My favorite eco-friendly gifts are the ones that are subtly sustainable. I love companies that are mindful of the environment, but whose products don’t necessarily scream “green.” Even little swaps like glass candy containers instead of plastic, or Ebooks rather than paper or hard backs, as you mentioned already. I always feel better knowing that I’ve done my part as an informed consumer and gift giver, without having to defend my sustainable motives to my family members. What is your preferred brand of fair trade coffee?

Homemade toys are great eco (and budget) friendly gifts for kids. We’re giving my two god-children homemade blocks sets out of scrap wood. As long as they are sanded properly and finished with safe paints/varnish, they are awesome and cheap gifts. I’m planning to make a doll quilt and cradle for next birthday. Of course homemade toys can require some skills (although wooden blocks are beginner level).

I love your blog always, but this post is fantastic. I love the majority of these gift ideas and, even with my current depth of brokeness, can afford to give some of these. And I have to admit, I do wish that you were in my gift giving circle. 😉

A few weeks ago one of our teenage daughter’s friends came over and noticed the hot water bottle our daughter had. She hadn’t seen one before and asked about it. My daughter explained that she warms up her bed with it and that it stays warm all night long, and makes a better heat or cold pack than the microwaveable packs. Her friend “tested” it while they watched a movie and decided she liked it. So we are doing hot water bottles with handmade patchwork covers based on some we found online and will use up some of our fabric scraps. Two of her friends are getting them as well as my niece and nephew, because I know their mom likes to keep the thermostat down at night, too.

Organic and/or local foods can be good gifts with low impact. My parents live in a small town with very mainstream stores, so they love to get foods from the bulk section of my local co-op store; I scoop into a reused container and later decorate it with scraps of wrapping paper. This year they’ll be getting instant hummus mix, falafel mix, teff, organic green tea, and all-natural organic sesame crunchies. Dad will get more sesame crunchies for his birthday in Feb. because he’ll have eaten them all by then!

Great ideas everyone. I love to give socks. A gift for all ages. Inexpensive. Many styles to choose from. I like to bake gifts like cookies, rum balls, chex mix snacks, bread. This year I am also heading over to Renee Harris’ MadeOn skin care site to get a DIY kit to make some Lotion Bars and lip balms for everyone. Our family gave up giving big gifts a few years ago and we concentrate on smaller treats for each other. It is the getting together and sharing good food and fellowship that is most important to how we spend the holidays. 🙂

Oh, I almost forgot to mention home made jams that I made this summer from blueberries and peaches. I thought they would make a good gift in the middle of winter. A little taste of Carolina summer.
I haven’t made my own cloth bags, but I do save bags and wrapping paper to reuse.

You know those quiet time mass kits in many of the Catholic Catalogues? They are made in China. I am making my own for my daughter and my niece. I am sewing a little bag and will decorate it with glittery fabric paint and rainbow colored ribbons. I am going to buy a set of laminated prayer cards and punch a hole in them and put them on a key ring. Finally I will add a rosary. They both already have appropriate board books they can add to the bag when they head to mass.

Another idea is cloth napkins. You can find plenty at thrift stores and the gift may just be the little nudge to get a friend or fanmily member hooked on using cloth instead of paper. If you have some extra time, you could add an iron on patch with an initial for each member of the family.

I know you just ran a sale on the beans ebook not too long ago, but if you could put it on sale again, that would be great! I am now looking in to using beans more in my cooking to save money, and I want good recipes, not bland ones (like I’ve tried in the past)! We’ve had a few unexpected expenses come up…

What great ideas! I love the sentence you use at the top of your wish list to give to family members. I’m in the same boat as you–if someone is going to buy me a gift, I would rather they spend their money on something I actually really want (and something that will last a long time)!

There’s always used gifts, too. There’s no rule saying a gift has to be new. It took a while, but I finally trained my family to give thoughtful used gifts, and now that’s all we do. Everyone is so much less stressed out, and if we don’t like a gift, we can just donate it back to the thrift store without having to worry a whole lot that a loved one spent a lot of money on it. If you’re scared to do it, you can start by giving a nice used gift along with the money you would’ve otherwise spent.

I don’t have further ideas for gifts, but I do wrap all my gifts in cloth bags that I make myself. It takes less than 10 minutes per bag and it is something they’ll use over and over again. I get Christmas fabric very cheap right before/after Christmas and have made tons of bags this way. Even for the non-sewing inclined, if you have a sewing machine you can do it so fast.

Great ideas here! Thanks for sharing, Katie! I am striving to do just this, this year. I am finding it a bit easier to come up with ideas for extended family: homemade granola (been gifting that for 5yrs now that everyone just expects it!), homemade chocolate truffles, and homemade liquid soap.
Question: I am having a much much tougher time coming up with ideas for my own kids! Do you have any ideas? We really don’t need/want any more toys (we’ve got wooden blocks!) but I am looking for a good doctor kit. And maybe legos, plastic though they may be.
Thanks!

Angela,
I echo Laura in saying that secondhand can be great. I have a friend who had a baby shower and requested only secondhand. How cool! Can you piece together a doctor kit with real castoffs?That would be cool… 😉 katie

Haha, yes, I have been considering the pieced-together doctor kit! Since I am having regular midwife appt. now (being 37wks) I have been asking for little things each time I go 🙂 I might need to get a “real” stethoscope for kids off amazon and find a cool bag. Oh and we love secondhand here! Esp since my kids are too young to know the difference anyways 🙂
Thanks!

Please remember that I’m just a gal who reads a lot and spends way too much time in her kitchen. I’m not a doctor, nurse, scientist, or even a real chef, and certainly the FDA hasn't evaluated anything on this blog. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please talk to your health professional (or at least your spouse) before doing anything you might think is questionable. Trust your own judgment…I can’t be liable for problems that occur from bad decisions you make based on content found here.

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